Carroll uses loose atmosphere to maximize Seahawks' talent

Kevin Duffy

Updated 11:10 pm, Thursday, January 30, 2014

Jersey City, N.J. --

These are facts, supported by record books and thorough Google searches: If the Seattle Seahawks pull it off Sunday, Pete Carroll will become the third coach to win both a Super Bowl and the college national championship.

If his ferocious Seattle defense bests the historically electric Broncos offense, the 62-year-old Carroll will also become the third oldest coach to claim the Lombardi Trophy.

This is not fact, but it's awfully difficult to argue: Pete Carroll, second-oldest among NFL head coaches, is the league's most "new school" coach.

Although he doesn't phrase it like that.

"I don't know if it's modern; it's just the only way I know how to do it," Carroll said at Thursday's news conference. "I understand that the guys do respond pretty favorably. They like what's going on. They respond by the way they practice and the way they play. We've created a culture that hopefully allows for guys to be at their best."

The Seahawks have basketball hoops in their meeting rooms. They watch funny videos before meetings. They have competition drills during practice "just to have fun," according to wide receiver Doug Baldwin. Seattle-based rapper Macklemore was in the team's locker room after it won the NFC Championship. Another hip-hop star, Drake, stopped by a Seahawks practice in December.

Pete Carroll, patrolling practice in East Rutherford, N.J., could become the third head coach to win college and NFL titles and the league's first twice-fired head coach to win a Super Bowl.

Pete Carroll, patrolling practice in East Rutherford, N.J., could become the third head coach to win college and NFL titles and the league's first twice-fired head coach to win a Super Bowl.

Photo: Byline Withheld, Associated Press

Carroll uses loose atmosphere to maximize Seahawks' talent

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That's not to say Carroll runs practice like it's school recess, because lost in this whole story is the fact that Seattle has the most menacing defense in the NFL. There's a reason for that, and it isn't because they play kickball on Thursdays.

"It's interesting to hear so many ways to explain it - laid back, free willy, doing whatever - we run this program with extraordinary standards in how we prepare every day, with expectations that they're going to be working their tails off every single step of every single practice," Carroll said. "When we get in games, it's not a different situation for us. I don't believe that people are very good at turning things on and off when it comes to intensity. You're either on, or you're not."

This week Carroll - a Greenbrae native and Redwood High grad - has been asked frequently about former Minnesota coach Bud Grant, one of his mentors. He still keeps in touch with Grant, now 86. They last spoke before the regular season game against the Saints, which turned out to be a 34-7 Monday night massacre in Seattle's favor.

Grant's "confidence that he exudes going with what he believes in his gut was extraordinary to me to see," Carroll said. "He didn't care what anybody else thought and he was really clear about how he expressed that. ... He talked that way and he taught me that. He lived that way. That was really what I came out of there with: a greater sense of confidence that I could get this done in time if I could get to what was really important to me."

Twenty years ago this month, a 42-year-old Carroll was given his first chance to get it done. He was promoted to head of the New York Jets, replacing Bruce Coslet. According to a 2000 Los Angeles Times story, he painted a basketball court in the parking lot of the team's practice facility, where he and his assistants would play pickup games. But the Jets went 6-10, and Carroll was fired after one season.

He spent two years as the 49ers' defensive coordinator, then was made New England's head coach in 1997. There, too, Carroll was fired, this time after two trips to the playoffs and a 27-21 record over three seasons. He was the bridge between Bill Parcells and Bill Belichick, two of the game's most successful old-school coaches.

He wound up at USC in 2001, where a players' atmosphere and some dynamite recruiting created the unquestioned college football King of the Decade.

"I never thought I'd leave USC," Carroll said Monday. "It was a perfect situation and I loved it."

But, in the back of his mind, Carroll "wanted to see what would happen if we translated this to the NFL." In 2010, NCAA sanctions from the Reggie Bush scandal were looming, and the Seattle job was open, and appealing.

It has taken Carroll four years to transform the Seahawks from a 7-9 playoff team in a laughable division to a 13-3 Super Bowl qualifier.

He's done it his way, just as Bud Grant did years ago. And he's done it with 21 undrafted free agents on the roster.

Another fact: If the Seahawks pull this off, Carroll will become the first man to win a Super Bowl after twice being fired as an NFL head coach.